Pinterest upgrades pinboard tools as US user growth slows

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Pinterest today upgraded its social network to help people better organize their photo collections. The company added several features to its digital pinboards that help make planning recipes, events and activities easier, per an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.

New "board notes" feature lets people add more detailed information to their pinboards, such as ingredients from a recipe they can look up while shopping, or write to-do lists as reminders. Pinterest users also can pin photos as notes in a project and add calendar dates to track project timelines. The features are available in its iOS and Android apps and website.

The upgrades come as the company yesterday reported that yearly user growth in the U.S. had slowed to 6% in Q1 from 8% in the prior quarter, and its annual revenue growth in the U.S. steadied to 27% in Q1 from 36% in the final quarter of 2019.

Insight:

Coming a day after reporting slower user growth, Pinterest's new features mostly apply to users rather than mobile marketers, and aim to help to make its platform handier for people who create digital pinboards to organize their ideas and plans.

Throughout its history, Pinterest has emphasized the aspirational nature of its service, giving people user-friendly tools to gather photos as they plan events, projects and shopping trips. The new project-oriented tools — including board notes, calendars, automated organizers and section templates — expand Pinterest's functionality and may help to boost usage. Prolonged user engagement can increase the likelihood that mobile marketers can reach target customers on Pinterest.

For Pinterest, user growth is a priority as the company seeks to carve out a bigger slice of the digital advertising market from rivals like Facebook, Google and Amazon. Pinterest's quarterly report indicated that international growth was robust, but meager in the U.S. The company also provided insight into the current quarter, saying that revenue fell 8% in April from a year earlier as the pandemic led advertisers to pull back on media spending.

Aside from those data points, Pinterest posted strong results for the quarter. Its total revenue growth of 35% to $272 million from a year earlier, including a 136% surge in international sales, was higher than some of its peers, despite Pinterest being a younger company. Q1 saw ad revenue growth of 44% for Amazon, 44% for Snap, 17% for Facebook, 10% for Google including YouTube and 3% for Twitter. Pinterest's total user base expanded 26% from a year earlier to 367 million, outpacing its U.S. user growth. The report suggests that Pinterest has an opportunity to greatly improve monetization outside the U.S.

Pinterest's new organizing tools follow other recent upgrades, such as last month's integrations with software for creators to help them post to its platform more easily. The company also added features to help people find and buy goods through search, Pinterest boards, pins and a curated style guide. In late March, the platform introduced its Today tab, highlighting trending posts and curated topics to help users find inspirational quotes and other online resources. In February, Pinterest debuted a verified merchant program to help consumers find and buy from trustworthy brands.